The Kobold Assassins [Lvl 4 Quest]
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The party arrives on a trail leading into a major city, it is heavily forested and the road is mostly rocks. While heading in a noise can be heard
with a succesful listen check of "18" if succesful the player hears the grunts of several kobolds deep in the forest. if heard skip to the first encounter
with the second setting.

If the listen check fails they continue down the road noticing that traffic is much quieter than normal. As they approach the last mile into the city
a gang of 4 kobolds jump out from the shrubbery.
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Read Aloud "You walk over the final hill finally getting sight of the walls surrounding the approaching city, but the roads seem much more silent
you remember.. You get the feeling that something may be watching you."
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Encounter 1

Treasure
Each kobold contains the following:
Potion of Cure Moderate Wounds
15 PP
Masterwork Shortbow
x10 Arrows
Iron Dagger
Potion of Mage Armor
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Read Aloud
"You continue on the path into the city after the vigorous battle with the kobolds, you make out a wagon in the distance, as you approach it you see
that it is unattended, missing the horse as well, at the wagon now you see what may of been the sanctuary of many valuable goods, but all the
goods have been stripped from their place."
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After the first encounter the players continure down the path to find a wagon left unattended on the side of the road with the horses missing.
A player can make a search attempt (Search Check of 22) to find a small bag of money (listed below) that increases with the number of PC's
(Multiply the money by the amount of Players) if found all PC's gain 200 xp
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Small Bag of Money
23 pp 68 sp 34 cp
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06-25-2012, 08:42 PM

Jubbers

kobolds in P&P are sneaky... they have a tendency to lay traps and pitfalls or even engage for a round then retreat. I have never meet a party that won't take up the chase and you can span out the party with your slow dwarvess and heavy armored people at the back with the faster light armored guys at the front.

I would enguage the party on the road as you mentioned but only with 1 or 2... pop a couple of arrows and then run... long strider potions will work well for this assault. Staging the initial attack in rough terrain will make it so there is no possibility of a charge and allow the kobolds to start running. Have the kobolds retreat to an area laid with kobold traps, I like the leg spike trap... foot falls into a hole with sharpened wooden spikes pointed twards the bottom. 1d6 damage and 1/2 movement on a failed save or half damage and no movement restrictions on a DC 12ish reflex save.

At this point I would spring the rest of the trap with kobolds being in elevated positions and rain the arrow death on the party down on the melee... I would also go with 2 monks and then fill the rest of the encounter with 1/3CR std kobolds using standard loot.

Kobolds would never go toe to toe with adventurers when they can kite them and destroy with numbers.

06-25-2012, 09:34 PM

QuadroMan1

Thanks I'll be sure to add in something like that, I'm still trying to think of where this adventure can go between them getting to the city and whats happening in the city or outside the city.

06-26-2012, 08:44 PM

captain1z

Hey Q,

First off let me tell you Ive been actively dmi'ing for 23 years and my style has changed over time. What you have posted is 1 encounter, not a campaign.

A campaign is a story with a begining, middle and an end. I suggest going on youtube and searching for woodwward campaign builder ( yes woodwward with 2 W's in the middle). Hes got 15 vids on just creating the world for the players to game in, take it as advice, not rules, use what u want.

Ask yourself questions.

- how did these kobolds get so powerful
- who trained them
- where did they come from, where do they live
- why were the playes targeted
- will the kobolds drink those potions if they have the chance
- who controls the city the pcs are going to
- why are they going there
- how does the city make money
- where did the players come from
- whats in the area, lakes, mountains, woods

More to come..........

06-26-2012, 09:07 PM

captain1z

I find the best way to write a story is to start at the end, better writers might say start in the middle but thee is a method to my madness.

In your mind, think about a huge, epic event that changes either the world, or a kingdom or city. It depends on how much travel or npcs you want to deal with. Small territory means more npcs and they need to be well developed real ppl because the players will interact with them often. Larger scope you still need npcs but you wont see them as often or maybe ever again. You will need more locations however, unless u spend all that time in dungeons or on the road.

Think about who is mostly responsible for the event. Work backwards, what do they need to make it happen, where did they come from, who are ther allies that would benefit from the event and who are those that would suffer....they will be the players possible allies. Make the players earn there allies, its good oportunity to role play.

Plot the path of what needs to happen for the enemy to win, maybe 3 major things and 10 small things.

Example:
- bad guys ressurect a dead dragon in hopes to control it and use it to destroy a nearby kingdom
- bad guys are dragon cultists who were throw out of the kingdom by the current kings long dead grandfather
- they want to reclaim the city where they used to be influential
- to succeed they need a large sum of treasure to gain the loyalty of the dragon once it lives again
- they need a powerful ritual that can bring back a dragon, its harder than raising a mortal man
- they need a powerful dragon priest to enact the ritual

More to come

Gaining the treasure can be done by a rash of highway robberies, grave robbing, thefts, maybe locate a gold mine. Players must have an opportunity to cut off the flow of treasure. Bad guys can still continue without as much treasure but in the end, thee control over the dragon will be weaker. Leaves the door open so players can succeed at that part of the quest or fail and still reach endgame....making it harder or easier in the end to ultimately save the kingdom.

Finding a ritual to raise a dragon. Keeping the ritual from them doesnt stop them from raising the dragon. The ritual ensures a living, intelligent dragon. Without it, they still may be able to raise the dragon as an undead one, stupid, savage, difficult to control but easier to trick, in the sense that it just wants to kill everyone around it and will stop at nothing but does so without thought of its surroundings.

Getting the help of a dragon priest, maybe an exiled one, maybe one who is weaker to start but will adventure to gain more power and items, minions. Stopping him from gaining power reduces his ability to control the dragon for very long, maybe he will need total concentration, maybe it wont stay living long and will rot over the course of minutes, reverting to a savage undead dragon.

More

10 small goals
The dragon priests requires a staff to make him more powerful
Armor for the dragon priest
Gather a special crystal found in cold regions to make potions from powde crystal, or amulets from crystal fragments that give the wearer resistance to fire. Just in case dragon tries something this protects him and his minions
Gather enough weapons for his minions
Recruit, recruit recruit

?.........hopefully you see whe im going.

Then you want to sit down with the players and figure out what they want to play, what goals do they have for each character, characte background and all those details.

Each character creates a subplot in the campaign. Personal stories that the other players help them with. Find an ancesters weapon, defeat an arch rival, start his own business or guild, on the run from assassins....whatever.

The trick is introducing the characters in the beginning and then, interweaving all the stories in such a way that they experience the story in small bits and if they are paying attention might see what could possibly happen at the end.

End of the story is the dragon gets raised.

What its like when it rises up is up to the players.

Theaftermath, whether it defeats the party or is destroyed is also in the hands of the players.

If the players are really creative and kill off the dragon priest leader or have his minions rounded up.....let them.

Have a back up. The dragon priests apprentice takes his masters place and raises the old dead priest as a dragonman or a ghast.
The minions get rounded up so the priest falls back on a clan of kobolds who helped him in the past to replace them.

Try to never say they just cant do something.......unless its really impossible.

Check out youtube.....curious to see how you make out.

06-26-2012, 09:49 PM

captain1z

One last fyi

A real campaign will take a year or more to see its end. If you play once per week focus on 1 small point and finish that point in a week or two. If you ramp up the difficulty slowly, gain maybe half a level every plat session, you could get 40 weeks of play out of it easy. End at 20th level.....maybe they fail some stuff and only hit 15-16. Thats fine.

At some point the story will start to write itself.

07-02-2012, 06:38 PM

QuadroMan1

Well after some quick thoughts i have an idea of a big corporate system of chaotic mercenaries, ran by (so and so) to start to make there way of control of the region by working on key targets one after another, players discover a kingpins lair and discover the plans, after this they find a list of targets, where other kingpins are at, etc. etc. and working there way further into the mystery find whos running the entire thing and have to make there way through a headquarters of the whole operation, it being practically a maze having to use diplomacy and intimidate on npcs to find there way through., thats just a quick brainstorm :P

07-02-2012, 06:41 PM

QuadroMan1

the reason they want control is because of the amount of money the area is making through there gigantic marketplace, exporting goods constantly including the rich mines beneath, at some point there could be a discovery of an attack in the mines and players have to stop it, or even escort the king of the area to safety through the thick woods while constantly being ambushed

07-02-2012, 06:42 PM

QuadroMan1

and all of that starts after the players find the details in the first kingpins lair and show it to the officials of the city

07-02-2012, 07:17 PM

QuadroMan1

Heres a brainstorm :)

Quote:

returning home from a thief bounty
-players are ambushed by kobold monks hired as the players are selected as "threats"
- players find a path behind a ransacked merchant wagon
players discover kingpin lair
- find details of a major system of chaotic mercenaries hired to take out targets
- find map of locations of other kingpins
- players show to officials of the city targeted
- players are hired to go to one of the other kingpin locations
second kingpin lair
- after wiping through the lair they find nothing they didnt already know
- a kobold messenger walks in
- players do with the kobold as they want, either getting info through intimidation, diplomacy, or searching his backpack
- players find the messengers map and where he was sent from
returning to the city
- players go to show the newly found info to the official
- officials say that one of the upcoming attacks is on the mine
- players go down in the mine to help stop the invasion
down to the mine
- players go down in the mine bracing for the attack
- a hole is blown in the wall as kobolds and ogres and more poor out
- players fight wave after wave of enemies as the mine is collapsing
- during the attack the entrance caves in behind them
- players escape through the tunnel
the tunnel
- the adventurers encounter several groups of enemies here
- after fighting there way out of the tunnel they enter the headquarters of the operation
headquarters
- the players make through this crudely made but large hideout, encountering more mobs, making there way up several floors
- after they reach the top, the leader of the system is found, a large half-dragon seeking wealth from the city
- he raises highly powerful elementals, a fire, earth, and air elementals how incredibly powerful from the half-dragons power
- after defeating the elementals the players run after the half dragon finding him performing a ritual to shape himself into a full dragon
- playes fight the dragon
- after defeating the dragon the players make there way out of the woods onto the nearest road miles away
- players make there way to the city only to find that it has been besieged by a second assault
the besieged city
- the players make there way through the siege fighting there way to the throne
- the players find the king terrified and find out his guards had been slain
- powerful ogres break down the doors and players battle them
- players escort the king out of the city through the woods having to protect him from several ambushes
- players reach the next city to inform them of the short notice attack
the next city
- players are formally briefed alongside the military and given there own plans to take the city back
- players are given there own task to clear out the market area
- players get to pick from a group of powerful weapons given from guard captains and arch mages alike
- players set out
taking the city back
- players enter the market and start clearing out the area as ordered
- after enemies are defeated reavers and flensers are sent in out of huge crates to attack the adventurers from all sides
- fighters battle the powerful foes
- after the battle the players return to the captain
end
- players go through the ending of the campaign
- players are awarded with dm's choice for future adventures